Abiding in Christ
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Abiding in Christ
Abiding in Christ
John
7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love.
10 If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.
11 “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
This passage paints a beautiful picture of the Christian life by magnifying 6 blessings of Abiding in Christ.
Salvation
Salvation
Verse 7 — “If you remain (or abide) in Me...”
This is an encouragement to persevere, to be properly and permanently connected to the vine.
If a person is indeed in Christ, he remains in Christ.
This is not saying that we merit our salvation by being steadfast and persevering to the end. But those who remain, those who abide inherit eternal life. This is why Paul speaks of finishing the race and fighting the fight to the end.
Listen to the wonderful promise in .
24 Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy,
Don’t we keep seeing this: the sovereign grace of God and a call to obedience. The steadfastness, the remaining and abiding are the necessary evidence of authentic salvation. Those who abide are His.
14 For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.
And look at
22 But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him —
23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
So, only the person who abides in the True Vine, Christ can claim the presence of God. You can only abide by being firmly grounded in Jesus.
Fruitfulness
Fruitfulness
Verse 4 — “Remain in Me, and I in you.”
Those who truly abide in Christ will produce fruit. But you can not produce your own fruit. This is becoming independent — independent of the life source of the vine. We sometimes think we can independently produce fruit of our own strength and cleverness.
Listen — even strong branches cannot bear fruit independent of the vine.
“Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.”
Fruit bearing is not a matter of strength or weakness, goodness or badness, bravery or cowardice, cleverness or foolishness, experience or inexperience.
How do you produce fruit?
First, don’t worry about producing fruit. Rather, concentrate on your relationship with Christ. Focus on walking with Him. The fruit naturally grows out of your relationship with Christ.
Let’s put it this way by answering the question.
What is real fruit?
Real fruit is Christlikeness.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
These are all characteristics of Christ. Therefore, Christlikeness grows naturally out of relationship with Him. We’re not trying to be loving and then joyful and then peaceful, and patience and so on. Those qualities are those of Christ and they grow more evident as we abide in Him.
Answered Prayer
Answered Prayer
This is an incredible thing.
Verse 7 — “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.”
Two conditions.
First, we must remain in Christ. This is only given to those who are permanently and securely connected to Christ. This is salvation. We saw that. So, this promise is only for believers.
And there’s a second condition. All Scripture is profitable. So this is not just the red letters, Christ’s words, but the Word of God in totality. All the message. If God’s Word abides in us. If we hole it in such high regard that we hide it in our hearts, commit ourselves to know it and to obey it.
The same thing is implied in , remember.
14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
:
In My name — is the important phrase. He will do nothing outside His character. The Christian abiding in Christ and His word in him would never pray for anything against the will of God because God’s will is at the foremost of his mind and heart.
Consider what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10.
2 Corinthians 10:5
5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
Little power in prayer is a result of not fully abiding and seek the mind of Christ. Instead of bringing our minds into obedience to Christ and asking according to His will, we ask selfishly, so our prayers go unanswered.
Psalm
4 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.
If you delight yourself completely in the Lord, He implants the right desires in you — His desires and then fulfills them. Isn’t it a blessing to know that God will answer every prayer that belongs to Him.
Abundant Life
Abundant Life
Abiding in Christ is the source of Abundant Life. It would have to be, because He is life. Is there any more abundant life than life of Christ.
10 A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.
For the one who abides, God works through him to bear much fruit. And since God produces the fruit — He gets the glory.
18 For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed,
20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.
See the progression?
The one who abides in Christ, bears much fruit; God is glorified in the fruit because He is the One who deserves all the credit. The purpose of life is fulfilled because God is glorified.
Therefore, the one who abides and glorifies God lives and experiences abundant life.
Complete Joy
Complete Joy
Verse 11
11 “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
God is concerned with you being consumed with joy. But many of us aren’t.
Why?
Bitterness, discontent, complaining, drudgery, bitterness — this is the common life of many Christians. But God designed us for joy in Christ. This goes back to what you’re getting from Christ. We have joy when we are fully abiding in Christ.
Abiding in the true vine is unaffected by external circumstances, persecutions, or disappointments of life. We can experience the same joy Jesus had. His joy flows through those who abide in Him.
Security
Security
Abiding in the True Vine is the deepest kind of security. Those in Him cannot be removed. They cannot be cutoff. There is no judgment or fear of judgment.
1 Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus,
On the other hand, those not remaining in Christ will be judged.
6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Because there is no living connection to Jesus Christ, they are cutoff and cast out.
37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.
If a person is cast out, it’s because he was never in Christ, he was never a real disciple.
But the branches that remain — prove their trueness and realness as disciples of Christ.